Prototype

Prototype

Horrible driving seems to be reaching epidemic proportions. So DriveDiagnostics of Jerusalem, Israel, is aiming to give vehicle owners and insurers direct feedback on drivers’ performances. Next year, the company plans to begin marketing a device, eight centimeters in diameter, that sits on the dashboard and monitors every move the vehicle makes using accelerometers to measure the forces on the car. Different combinations of forces correspond to different events, and algorithms deduce whether the driver is braking suddenly or taking a corner sharply. The software examines a journey’s worth of events and correlates them with one of 30-odd driver profiles, such as “tired,” “drunk,” or “inexperienced.” Although the device will flash a red warning light when a bad move is made, the target market isn’t drivers but those who want to enforce better driving, such as parents of new drivers, car fleet managers, and insurance companies, who could review drivers’ performances after the fact.